Oat Recipes: 25+ Favorite Ways to Cook with Oats

We always had a carton or bag of oats in our pantry growing up and it never went to waste. Oats can contribute to good eating throughout the day –  beyond a bowl of oatmeal for breakfast – and that’s what I’m excited to highlight on this page. This is a collection of my favorite oat-centric recipes, a celebration of the humble oat. If you have a bag on hand and want to put a dent in it, you’re in the right place. Baked oatmeal, homemade granola, muffins, pancakes, and snacks are all made better with oats.

Why I Love Cooking with Oats

The reasons to embrace more oats in your cooking are numerous. They’re good for you, sure. A fiber -rich, whole grain, hearty ingredient of the first order. They’re also an affordable pantry workhorse. There are different types ranging from steel-cut oats to oat flour made by blending rolled oats into a flour you can introduce into your baking projects for added depth, sweetness, and rustic vibes.

1. Baked Oatmeal Cups

   Baked oatmeal cups are the perfect on-the-go breakfast staple. These are made with oats, bananas, and lots of berries, then baked into golden deliciousness.
   

2. Oatmeal Peanut Butter Cookies

   Classic peanut butter cookies flecked with oatmeal and baked until golden. Double down on the peanut front with hand-chopped peanuts and chunky peanut butter.
   

3. Oatmeal Muffins

   A rich, crumble-topped oatmeal muffin recipe made with an oatmeal and yogurt base. Golden-topped, wholesome, and a fantastic pocket treat.
   

4. Coconut Baked Oatmeal

   An extra special baked oatmeal – banana, coconut, vanilla, coconut milk, and some winter citrus, all baked into fragrant, golden-topped magic.
   

5. Peanut Butter Granola

   Using a short ingredient list of pantry basics, this peanut butter granola is incredibly good. It features a peanut butter and maple syrup coating that bakes beautifully into crunchy oat clusters.
   

6. No-bake Energy Bites

   An alternative to ultra-processed energy bars, these homemade, no-bake energy bites are a great late afternoon snack. The best part is they’re simple to make, and you’re in control of the ingredients.
   

1. Coconut Baked Oatmeal

   An extra special baked oatmeal – banana, coconut, vanilla, coconut milk, and some winter citrus, all baked into fragrant, golden-topped magic.
   

2. Baked Oatmeal Cups

   Baked oatmeal cups are the perfect on-the-go breakfast staple. These are made with oats, bananas, and lots of berries, then baked into golden deliciousness.
   

3. Oatmeal Muffins

   A rich, crumble-topped oatmeal muffin recipe made with an oatmeal and yogurt base. Golden-topped, wholesome, and a fantastic pocket treat.
   

4. Oatmeal Porridge Pancakes

   If you love oatmeal, these need to be your next pancake adventure. They’re like a delicious oatmeal porridge in pancake form. Made with toasted walnuts and blueberries – dairy-free, egg-free batter.
   

5. Toasted Four Grain Cereal

   A hot, filling, four-grain breakfast cereal that you can make extra-special with all sorts of different toppings. If you love oatmeal, this is a way to level up.
   

6. Better Breakfast Cereal

   This is going to make your mornings better. Combine entire boxes of healthful cereal into your biggest bowl, add extra oats, oat bran, ground flax seeds, and freeze-dried berries. Now you have plenty of breakfasts ready to go.
   

7. Multigrain Waffles

   Poppyseed-flecked and made with a blend of barley, oat, and rye flours, these multigrain waffles are buttermilk-moist with a golden crust and a hint of tanginess.
   

8. Blueberry Muffins with Lavender

   Everything you love about a classic blueberry muffin, but with a hint of lavender and buttery oat streusel tops people inevitably eat first.
   

1. Oatmeal Muffins

   A rich, crumble-topped oatmeal muffin recipe made with an oatmeal and yogurt base. Golden-topped, wholesome, and a fantastic pocket treat.
   

2. Multigrain Waffles

   Poppyseed-flecked and made with a blend of barley, oat, and rye flours, these multigrain waffles are buttermilk-moist with a golden crust and a hint of tanginess.
   

3. Oatmeal Porridge Pancakes

   If you love oatmeal, these need to be your next pancake adventure. They’re like a delicious oatmeal porridge in pancake form. Made with toasted walnuts and blueberries – dairy-free, egg-free batter.
   

4. Blueberry Muffins with Lavender

   Everything you love about a classic blueberry muffin, but with a hint of lavender and buttery oat streusel tops people inevitably eat first. I also posted a sampler of great muffin recipes here.
   

1. Oatmeal Peanut Butter Cookies

   Classic peanut butter cookies flecked with oatmeal and baked until golden. Double down on the peanut front with hand-chopped peanuts and chunky peanut butter.
   

2. Whole Wheat Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

   I’m posting this recipe not because these are the best oatmeal chocolate chip cookies ever of all time. They’re good, but…I’m posting the recipe, because they make amazing ice cream sandwich cookies. And it’s prime ice cream sandwich season.

   

3. Nikki’s Healthy Cookie Recipe

   A remarkable healthy cookie recipe. And SO popular! Banana-batter, shredded coconut, dark chocolate chunks, and oats. The recipe is butter-less, flour-less, egg-less, and potentially sugar-less cookies make great after school or after work treats. Healthy cookies!

   

4. Thinnest Oatmeal Cookies

   An easy cookie to bake. Made from rolled oats, they’re razor thin and lacy, golden, freckled with poppy seeds, plus an anise accent from crushed fennel seeds.
   

5. Healthful Double Chocolate Cookies

   A nut-free (school-friendly), double chocolate version of one of the most popular cookies on my site. Made with a banana-batter, shredded coconut, dark chocolate chunks, and oats. Butter-less, flour-less, egg-less, and potentially sugar-less cookies make great after school, travel, or post-workout treats.

   

6. Mesquite Chocolate Chip Cookies

   Mesquite flour adds a wonderful accent to these oat and walnut studded chocolate chip cookies. If you’ve never baked with it, this is your encouragement.
   

1. Peanut Butter Granola

   Using a short ingredient list of pantry basics, this peanut butter granola is incredibly good. It features a peanut butter and maple syrup coating that bakes beautifully into crunchy oat clusters.
   

2. The Perfect Healthy Granola (Low Oil & Naturally Sweetened)

   There are a few different granola camps. This one falls squarely in the great, everyday, healthy granola category. Midnight black and deeply chocolate-flavored with dark black cocoa and cocoa nibs, this granola is packed with heart-healthy oats and seeds. Naturally sweetened, clumpy, and crunchy, the recipe calls for just a small splash of olive oil, and leverages a secret ingredient to bring it all together.
   

3. Sourdough Granola

   This sourdough granola is the way to go if you love huge, golden, oat clusters. It’s maple-sweetened, cinnamon-kissed and a great way to use up a good amount of sourdough discard.
   

4. Rose Petal Granola

   A variation on the granola from my book, Super Natural Every Day – this time with rose petals, walnuts, currants, and black pepper.
   

5. No-bake Energy Bites

   An alternative to ultra-processed energy bars, these homemade, no-bake energy bites are a great late afternoon snack. The best part is they’re simple to make, and you’re in control of the ingredients.
   

6. Nikki’s Healthy Cookie Recipe

   A remarkable healthy cookie recipe. And SO popular! Banana-batter, shredded coconut, dark chocolate chunks, and oats. The recipe is butter-less, flour-less, egg-less, and potentially sugar-less cookies make great after school or after work treats. Healthy cookies!

   

7. Healthful Double Chocolate Cookies

   A nut-free (school-friendly), double chocolate version of one of the most popular cookies on my site. Made with a banana-batter, shredded coconut, dark chocolate chunks, and oats. Butter-less, flour-less, egg-less, and potentially sugar-less cookies make great after school, travel, or post-workout treats.

   

1. Cheddar Jalapeño Oatmeal Bread

   This oatmeal bread wins the award for best toast. It’s a hearty oat-flecked loaf with a buttermilk base studded generously with melty cubes of cheddar cheese and punctuated with thin slices of jalapeño pepper. Where the cheese touches the pan it turns to golden-crispy perfection.
   

2. Easy Little Bread

   The simple, easy little bread you should make right this minute – yeast-based, farm-style, made from rolled oats and a blend of all-purpose and whole wheat flours.
   

3. Oatmeal Crackers

   Snappy, substantial, homemade oatmeal crackers – made with rolled oats and rye flour.
   

4. Savory Power Bars

   These homemade power bars are based on the recipe I published years ago in Super Natural Cooking. The main difference here is I made these savory with toasted walnuts, crumbled kale chips, and oil-cured olives.
   

1. Strawberry Rhubarb Crumble

   A simple spring crumble – rhubarb, strawberry, and a splash of port wine with a buttery black pepper, pine nut and oat crumble top. Sounds a bit fancy, but really, it couldn’t be easier to make.

   

More Whole Grain Recipes

There are endless ways to work diverse and flavorful whole grains in to your cookie. Here is a short list of favorite ideas:

• Farro Salad with Olives, Walnuts and Pecorino
• Rye Chocolate Brownies
• Quinoa Patties
• Multigrain Waffles
• Swedish Rye Cookies
• How To Cook Quinoa
• How To Make a Sourdough Starter 
• Rye Crepes

Types of Oats in Recipes

There are a number of different types of oats to buy. Let’s talk through a few of them:

• Rolled oats: Likely the oats you’re most familiar with, rolled oats, also known as old-fashioned oats, are steamed and flattened oats used in cookies, muffins, and other baked items. They’re also a middle choice between thinner, flaky quick cooking oats, and long-cooking steel-cut oats.
• Quick oats: The fastest cooking oats to use in oatmeal and porridges, but I typically skip this type of oat. Rolled oats have a superior texture and structure and are well worth the extra few minutes of cooking time.
• Steel-cut oats: These are oat groats that have been chopped into pieces but blades keeping the bran, endosperm, and germ intact. They take quite a bit of extra time to cook and lend a completely different texture to morning oatmeals. Their chewy texture have won them many fans.
• Oat flour: You can easily make oat flour by blending rolled oats into a powder. It’s a natural GF flour (if your oats are labelled GF) to use it in cookies, muffins, waffles, pancakes, etc. It will bring a bit of nutty, rustic flavor to your baking, start by substituting 10-20% and take not of the difference. Oat flour absorbs water a bit more slowly than all-purpose flour so allow your doughs and batter to sit for a few extra minutes.

FAQ

• Are oats gluten-free? Oats are naturally gluten-free but if processed in a place that also works with other flours, contamination can happen. Check labels and look for the GF symbol if you’re avoiding gluten.
• Can you make oat flour out of rolled oats? Yes absolutely! Process rolled oats in a blender until you have a uniform, powdery flour.
• Can you swap in steel-cut oats for rolled oats in a recipe? Probably not. While they both come from whole-grain oat groats, they are processed differently, resulting in different shapes requiring different cooking times and resulting in completely different oat texture when cooked.

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